The internet currently boasts 3.17 billion users. 2.3 billion of those are active social media users. When social media marketing is considered in light of the number of people it can reach, you would think every business would jump on board. It’s a millennial gold rush producing profitable results around the globe.
Consider the following statistics: In September 2016, Facebook claimed 1.59 billion active users. Twitter claimed 300 million users were responsible for over 500 million tweets daily or that’s 6,000 tweets every second of every day!
Social media marketing has always been a numbers game. The more visitors you attract, the more conversions you can expect. Imagine a sales funnel where thousands and thousands of daily visitors view your site. The funnel narrows a bit and some of those visitors become prospects.
In exchange for an email address, you send an e-book and newsletter explaining 1,001 ways to fillet fish. The e-book and newsletter provide valued information for free but in exchange, you gain valuable information about your prospects. As the funnel narrows, some of those prospects generate leads. Finally, on average, 2-4% become buyers. The same numbers that are expected from any marketing plan.
The most significant difference is that by its very nature, social media increases the potential for creating endless possibilities.
The social media revolution is as potent as a lightning strike. The question is how to harness the power of social media marketing to reap the benefits of an online presence.
Social Media Optimization
Remember, social media is a viable means to an end to furnish many of your marketing needs. Use it only if you believe it will help with the success of your business.
Will marketing through social media:
- Help meet an otherwise unmet business need
- Help increase access to your target market
- Help open doors to a new niche market
- Help move prospects through the conversion funnel
- Help improve the experience of existing customers
If social media does not meet the above expectations for your business you are probably wasting time and money. If you’re already using social media to market your goods or services, perhaps it’s been a while since you refreshed or updated content. There are many ways to optimize your social media outlets. We will consider a few of them in the following paragraphs.
Social media optimization is the process of adjusting your site, blog, or social media profiles to integrate with search algorithms. How? By posting relevant content, updating often, and ensuring your web presence is easy for search engines to discover with their spiders.
Inbound Links
A high page ranking may be dependent on good inbound links. Inbound links are backlinks coming in from another website and connecting with your website. Primary for any search engine spider are good inbound links. Good inbound links reflect relevance and provide consistent traffic.
How to improve your page ranking with inbound links:
- Design and compose content that others will want to share. Think Facebook shares, tweets, YouTube
- Distribute press releases not to raise your voice about how great your business is but to provide honest, helpful, and useful content
- Network your content with similar websites
Strong inbound links should come from influential websites. Websites have high rankings because of their reliability and past performance. Not to mention the proper use of anchor text. Anchor text is a copy that is hyperlinked and should flow naturally.
Google says to click here to learn more about what would be considered an unnatural link. The following is an example of hyperlinked text whose sole purpose is to lead traffic to other sites.
“Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites. For example: There are many wedding rings on the market. If you want to have a wedding, you will have to pick the best ring. You will also need to buy flowers and a wedding dress.”
Here’s a link that provides more information regarding inbound marketing.
Search Engine Resources
The following links are “must-have tools” for the optimization of a successful social media campaign.
- Google webmaster
- Search Engine Guide
- Search engine journal
- Search engine land
- Moz
- Findurlstats.com
Tips for Creating Search Engine-Friendly Content
- When writing content, enter search words or keywords in the first paragraph because that is the first place search engines look. Include keywords in the URL, post title, and text. For example, in this blog, the keywords, “social media marketing” are written in the second sentence of the first paragraph.
- Update often because search engines love updated content. This blog you are reading is a form of current updated content. Search engines love updated content. Your social media outlets demand constant attention if you expect to be in front of the line.
- Internal links should open in the same window. External links should open in a new window. Be careful where you post your links as search engines can’t read content embedded in an image.
- Your pages must open quickly or visitors will move on. Make your navigation smooth and easy by ensuring graphics are as small as possible without compromising your message or brand.
- Include easy-to-understand search terms in your URL. Keep it as short as possible.
- Avoid keyword stuffing. Indiscriminate use of keywords on any page will send an alert to search engines and lower your Google ranking considerably. Ensure that your content is well-written and easy to understand.
- Include a page with your business’s privacy policy. Search engines give high priority to sites that include a page for their privacy policy.
As noted, billions of folks are online every single day. Marketing through social media has become a way of life around the globe.
Much success,
Looking for more great reads? Check out these related articles:
- Becoming a T-Shaped Social Networker
- 8-Seconds to Effective Social Media Marketing
- 8 Social Media Hacks that Are Sure to Up Your Marketing Game
- 6 Tactics to Improve Your Social Strategy with Live-Streaming Videos
- 3 Must-Employ Tactics to Grow Your Business’ Social Media Following
- 3 Tips for Scheduling Out Content on Social Media
- 3 Social Media Myths You Should Stop Believing
